Charde Houston had 16 points and 10 rebounds, and Candice
Wiggins scored 12 points for the Lynx (11-10), coming off a
five-day break.

"We needed a break to regroup," coach Jen Gillom said. "I
thought we had four good practices this week and I knew it would
carry over into this game. The girls were very enthusiastic in
practice. If we can contain this type of energy, wow, the sky's
the limit."

Last year, Minnesota also was 10-10 at the 20-game mark, but
went 6-8 the rest of the way to miss the playoffs for the fourth
consecutive season. The Lynx are third in the Western
Conference, a game behind Seattle, and 1 1/2 games ahead of San
Antonio, which plays in Minnesota on Sunday.

"What you saw tonight is what you can expect from us the rest of
the year," Houston said.

That would be diving for loose balls, pressure defense and
aggressiveness on the glass. Minnesota held a 45-27 rebounding
edge.

Sandrine Gruda led Connecticut with 21 points. Jones had 16
points, and Anete Jekabsone-Zogota and former University of
Minnesota standout Lindsay Whalen each had 15 for the Sun
(10-10), which was 12-for-22 from the free-throw line.

Montgomery, the team's No. 1 draft pick this year, hit a
3-pointer with 5:41 to play for a 81-78 Lynx lead. She was
9-of-13 from the field.

"Today I just decided to be more aggressive and go to the rim
until they stopped me," she said.

Anosike made a pair of free throws and Montgomery two more in
the final 2 minutes for Minnesota for a 91-86 lead. The Lynx,
wearing pink uniforms as part of Breast Health Awareness Night,
were 23-for-31 from the line.

Anosike, an All-Star selection, was averaging six points in the
three games since the All-Star break after scoring 33 in her
previous two games. Her 10th career double-double tied Svetlana
Abrosimova for the most in franchise history.

"She was playing 32, 34 minutes in the first half (of the
season) and she really needed a break," Gillom said. "I don't
want to make excuses, but, yeah, it was definitely a factor."

Connecticut was 3-of-8 from the line in the final quarter.

"We've got some good free-throw shooters," Connecticut coach
Mike Thibault said. "Jekabsone never misses, I don't think ever,
and she missed some. Some other people missed two or three and
that was a chance when the game could have been tied one point
either way. Those are giveaway points."

The Sun fell from second to fourth in the Eastern Conference, a
half-game ahead of Chicago for the final playoff spot.

Back-to-back 3-pointers by Tan White and Jekabsone-Zogota gave
the Sun a 37-27 lead midway through second quarter, but the Lynx
cut it to 48-45 at the half.